Genealogy Bonus!

We started off the week with a visit to Stirling Castle (again) but this time with the Sisters.  They are in a trio and one, Sis. Parker, goes home in early July and had never been to Stirling, so they just had to go.  We have taken a liking to Sis. Parker because she is so sweet and has a voice like "buttuh". (Dads words.)  This time we took the guided tour and heard some interesting info. One of the buildings at Stirling is painted a gold color, while all the other buildings are a grey sandstone. He told us the color is officially known as "King's Gold" and that the whole castle was painted this color.  Also, there are carved statues along the outside of the Great Hall and gargoyles and such and during the royal Stuart's time there, they were painted and gilded.  He said it was probably the Disneyland of their time because of all the color and splendor.  I always thought castles were dull and gray and imposing, but apparently not this one.

We also made the short trip over to the William Wallace (Braveheart) Monument.  It was built in the late 1800's and is really nice.  However, we opted not to climb the 297 steps up the tower to see what was on the three levels (My foot doesn't like stairs) so there was really not much to see.  A replica of Wallace's sword is on level two and you can tell from the length of it how tall Wallace was. 

Tues was the South Scotland Mission Conference in Edinburgh.  It was the usual teaching agenda.  I brought three Better Than Anything cakes, which are gaining quite a reputation in this mission.  I had to modify the recipe when we first came to Ireland because they do not have caramel syrup, but they do have a caramel condensed milk that they use to make Banoffie Pie, so that's what I have been using.  However, I did discover here in Scotland that they have a toffee syrup, so I was able to make the regular cake and it was YUM.  In fact, Pres Donaldson made a special trip to our table to see if there was any cake left. ( the Sister missionaries always descend on this cake like a plague of locusts). Dad sacrificed his piece.  Pres Donaldson is diabetic-I hope this cake doesn't kill him.

Thurs night at Institute, we had an activity in lieu of a lesson.  A member of our ward is a producer/director for the BBC and has been tasked with producing a short segment on Mormons for the show he produces, directed to the 18-35 demographic. We had approached him about using our Institute students in the piece and he agreed.  So Thurs was a dinner and planning session to talk about the approach he wanted to take.  He showed us a short film he and his kids made for the recent Stake Film Festival using his producing skills.  It is really cute.  Head over to our Scotland Ireland Mission FB page if you want to see it.  There's another fun youtube video of a set of triplets in our Paisley Stake opening their mission calls. Not sure what it's under but you can probably search "triplets opening mission calls" or something like that.

Our investigator Irene, has dropped off the radar.  She went to church with us last Sunday and said she liked it, but we have not been able to contact her since. We hope she has not returned to her heroin use. We have a second appt this week with a young man who contacted the Church for a Book of Mormon and we got to take it to him and present the first discussion. We'll let you know how that goes.

Other than that, we have just been trying to find and contact lost sheep; people who are on the rolls of the Branch but have dropped away. We're also visiting less active members and fellowshipping them. 

We finally got back over to the farm at Shutterflat and got the 12 pages of genealogy from the current residents living there.  The Lamonts are  related to the Stevensons in some way, and live on the farm now.  Some guy, 10 years ago, came to their house and told them he had done extensive genealogical research on the Stevensons and had 12 pages of history about them, which he subsequently brought to them.  She allowed us to photograph the pages so we could have the info. It is quite detailed and has birth and death dates we don't have, plus a slew of other Stevenson people we didn't have.  However, a lot of it is not jiving with what little Dad had on his line.  Yes, there are people that are the same as what he has, but the dates are not lining up.  According the the info that we got from the Lamonts, Agnes, the daughter of Robert Stevenson and Marion King apparently didn't marry.  He couldn't find evidence that she did.  Doesn't necessarily mean she didn't, he just didn't find any record of it. Agnes is the tie into Dad's line, so without her, there is no connection to the Stevensons.  We have two experienced genealogists in our Branch who  are looking into it for us.  The guy who compiled all this info did give a reference for where he got all his info, but we need to find out where we can see the book he got the info from.  So the saga continues...

On Fridays and Saturdays we are volunteering at the local Town House of Beith.  It is like a city history office.  Currently we are transcribing old financial documents having to do with land purchases.  On Saturday a gentleman and his wife from Australia walked in looking for information about their family members that lived there. One of them was Andrew Clark.  It just so happens that two of the records we had worked on in previous weeks involved Andrew Clark.  They were so happy to hold and touch a piece of history (200+ years old) from their ancestors.  What we doing there is making a difference in people's ability to find out about their family.  Oh my days!!!

HASTE YE BACK!

Another Week in Beith Scotland

We had a good week this week.  On Monday (P-Day) we met up with a set of sister missionaries from our Zone and went to Cuzlean (pronounced Culleen) Castle near the town of Maybole on the the northwest Scottish coast.  It was amazing!  The castle is beautiful with lots of beautiful architectual  detail.  It is the second great house we've seen that was designed by Robert Adams.  He also did Hopetoun House, which we saw the week before. The Castle sits on the Firth of Clyde and has wonderful views of the ocean.  We took the Sisters because Sis. Paxton is on her last transfer and will be going home in July and she hadn't had an opportunity to see the Castle.  We are trying to give at least the Sisters in the area a chance to see some of the sights of Scotland while they are in the area.  Tomorrow we are taking another trio of sisters to Stirling Castle near Edinburgh for the same reason.  Sis. Parker is also on her last transfer, so we wanted to give her an opportunity to see Stirling before she goes.  Next week we are reuniting with our dear Sis. Kim from Tralee who is serving in Glasgow and we'll go back to Stirling, making it the third time we'll see it.  Fortunately, we invested in a Scottish Heritage Pass, so we will get in for free both times. In case you are wondering why we only take sisters- they are a lot more fun to take to places like this. They get way more excited than the Elders do.  Besides, no Elders have asked us.

Tues we went to visit the Elders in our district because the mission home had gotten a complaint from the landlord about how they were taking care of their flat.  All was fine there, so tempest in a teapot.  While we were there they gave us a referral for someone in our area.  Her name is Irene.  We called and made an appt to go meet her.  When we got there we found that she had just moved to the area and had literally nothing.  The Council had put her in a flat and were in the process of getting her assistance , but it was going to take a week or so.  She had no money, the clothes on her back, one fork, one plate and one cup.  The Council had provided her with housing and a bedroom set.  After visiting with her for a bit and finding out a little about her, Dad told her we were taking her shopping for some food because we couldn't just leave her stranded, and you know Dad.  The next day we picked her up and took her to a charity shop in town and she got some dishes and some clothes.  Her money should come through by the end of this week.  She is a wee thing and looks like a strong gust of wind could blow her away.  She's coming off a heroin addiction (8 weeks sober, according to her) and trying to turn her life around. She has a deep smoker's voice that doesn't match her appearance and she says she's had 10 kids! She has had a very hard life; father died when she was young, mother became an alcoholic, had a husband who beat her, etc, etc.  It seems to be the story for a lot of people around here. We taught her the Restoration discussion yesterday and she came to church with us today.  She says she liked it.  We'll let you know how it goes with her.

We're getting to know some of the less active people in the area.  One is a cheeky lady named Mhorag or Mo.  She's a large woman with short dyed red (literally) hair.  We first met her when we went on our first shopping trip here.  She works at the Tesco in Kilbirnie where we shop.  As we were standing in the check out line, I looked over to the next till and saw this lady waving at me.  I looked around to see who she was waving at.  Finally she got our attention and we went over and she told us she was a member.  She didn't tell us she hasn't been to church for years.  Her nephew is counselor in the Branch Presidency so he told us a little about her.  We've visited her twice and she is a hoot!  We are looking forward to some good times with her.

On Thurs we went to dinner at Robert and Anne's house. Anne has been a member for years, but not active. Robert has been learning; they were being taught by the Elders and Anne loves to mother the boys. Now she has taken to mothering us.  We are set up for dinner there with them every Thurs now.  She is going to teach me how to do strand knitting.  She LOVES to talk, but has a very thick accent which is hard to understand sometimes, tho' our ears are starting to tune in.  She's cheeky too and I think we will get along great!

Another sweet sister is Agnes Brown, or as she is known to everyone Wee Nan Sans.  She's 85, I believe, and a wee tiny lady, but with a personality twice her size.  She brings sweeties (candy) to Church every Sunday and has her cousin or someone else in the Branch take it around to everyone to share.

Today we went back to the farm in Shutterflat where Dad's ancestors lived and the woman was able to show us the pages of Stevenson genealogy that someone gave her 10 years ago. Dad was able to take pictures of the pedigree chart as well as 10 written pages of details about the Stevenson line.  What little we've read doesn't line up well with what is on Family Search for what Dad has on the Stevenson line, so it will be interesting to see what it says when we get into it deeper.  There is a library here in Glasgow that houses a lot of records that might also be a resource for us to find more on the Stevensons.

HASTE YE BACK!